


Heat Incommunicado

by Shutterbug5269



Series: Shutterbug's Cornucopia of One Shot Procrastination Drabbles [1]
Category: Castle
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-09-02
Updated: 2015-09-01
Packaged: 2018-04-18 14:09:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,560
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4708823
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shutterbug5269/pseuds/Shutterbug5269
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>AU for Ep 2x18: Boom. Castle saves Beckett from Dunn's bomb, but instead of letting her work the case, Agent Shaw announces Kate's death on the scene and she's not allowed to leave Castle's loft until Dunn is caught.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Heat Incommunicado

**Heat Incommunicado**

_“Goodbye, Nikki.”_ said the heavily modulated voice over Castle's phone.

“Kate!” Castle shouted just as an explosion sent Castle sprawling to the pavement and gouts of flame spurted through the third floor window where he knew Kate's apartment to be. The bottom dropped out of his world as the horror of what he saw overtook him.  Castle battled through the other tenants fleeing the building, taking the stairs to her floor two at a time until he cleared the landing and sprinted for her door.

“Kate, are you in there?!” He shouted, pounding on her door, which was still hot to the touch, “KATE!”

When she didn't answer, Castle took two steps back and shouldered into her door, sending it crashing into the floor, with him on top of it

“Ow Ow!” he exclaimed as he scrambled to his feet. “Kate?” 

He'd only been to her place the night before, but the living area of her apartment had been reduced to a smoldering alien landscape by the incendiary device. Though thankfully most of the fire had been blown out the window by the pressure wave of the explosion, he was aware from his extensive research that it was only a matter of time before - like the window sills - the rest of the wooden furnishings reached flash-over and the room would soon be fully involved again.

“Kate!” This time after calling her name, he heard weak coughing from the direction of a door blown off it's hinges, that he recalled led to Kate's bathroom. He'd found it by chance that morning when the two glasses of wine he'd had the night before caught up to him and he'd had to pee.

“Kate?” He shouted into the bathroom as he yanked the door away from the cast iron bathtub.

“You're alive!” he exclaimed, before his eyes fully took in the very naked expanse of her back “Whoa. And you're naked.”

They had a brief back and forth, during which they came to the realization there was nothing in her bathroom with which she would be able to safely cover herself, and he'd been careful not to look as she shrugged into his jacket and belted it closed around her. He helped her climb out of the tub and she gripped his arm tightly with a wince of pain as he set her on her feet, clearly having turned an ankle in her dash for the tub.

“Can you walk?” He asked haltingly, as she grabbed him more tightly to remain on her feet.

“Ugh. Yeah,” Kate replied, trying hard to maintain her composure, “just… a little banged up.”

“Okay. Come on. Nice and easy.” He whispered, more relieved that she was alive than he was able to express.

His own guilt for putting her in this guy's sights with his book and that damned Cosmo article eating him alive. He was sure as he helped her from the bathroom that she was about to make a pithy remark in the vein of their usual banter, but all that escaped her lips was a low squeak before her eyes rolled into the back of her head and she lost consciousness.

“Kate!” he husked, as she went limp in his arms, thankfully still breathing. Without a second though he swept his free arm under her knees and carried her from her once more burning apartment and down three flights of stairs to the sight of the NYFD and a waiting ambulance. His face twisted in an expression of absolute devastation.

* * *

Special Agent Jordan Shaw carefully navigated the press and emergency vehicles, a small carry-on bag under one arm, until she found Richard Castle standing outside an ambulance, his face drawn in a frown as she showed her credentials to the guard at the door opened it and climbed inside.

“Beckett? How you doing?” she asked, handing the detective the bag, which contained her emergency set of clothes she kept for circumstances much like this one.

“I'm fine.” Kate replied, accepting the bag with a small quirk of her lips.

“What'd you see when you got home?” Shaw asked, getting right to business as Kate tugged the yoga pants up her legs, turned her back to the agent, shrugged out of Castle's jacket and slipped the slightly over sized FBI sweatshirt over her head, careful of the stitches at her hairline and the bandage on her wrist.

“The, uh, the doors were locked like I left them,” Kate began with a stuttering breath, “the windows were shut and… I don't know. Nothing seemed out of place. But I don't know, you know, 'cause I thought the case was done.”

“It's not, detective, but you are.” Shaw stated without preamble.

“What?” Kate asked incredulously shrugging the FBI windbreaker on.

“Effective immediately, you're benched 'til we find the right guy.” Shaw explained.

“Wait,” Kate exploded, “This is my apartment. Okay? My life and my case.”

“Not any more.” Shaw replied. “I've already announced to the press that you survived the explosion, but in spite of Mr. Castle's heroic efforts, you were pronounced dead at the scene. Until we can track down the real guy, You'll be cooling your heels in a safe house, along with anyone else who knows you're not dead. Including Mr. Castle.”

“But...” Kate stuttered, trapped between anger and confusion, “But..”

Shaw cracked the door to the ambulance open and waved Castle inside now that Kate was fully dressed. Not giving her an opening to argue.

“I've already cleared it with your captain, he vouched for your team, who will be brought into the fold once I've finished vetting and briefing them. It's just a matter of setting you up in a safe house.”

“I don't want to be holed up in a damned safe house!” Kate snapped, “I want to be out there hunting down this son of a bitch!”

“You'll either cooperate and go to a safe house while I do my job,” Shaw interrupted with steel in her voice, “or you'll spend it cooling your heels in a cell as a federal material witness, your choice.”

Shaw and Kate glared at each other, but the agent did not give an inch as she stared Beckett down. As indomitable as Kate Beckett's will was, even she knew when she was outmaneuvered. It was either this, or wait helplessly as their killer claimed more victims, murdered more innocent people in a sick bid get one over on her. But for Castle's quick thinking, he just may have succeeded.

“I have a pretty good place, Agent Shaw, two to be honest.” Castle stated, after the ambulance door slammed shut, “I live in a secured building and an extra bedroom, not to mention people who care about her. If you put a federal detail at the door. It'll be the safest place in the city. If you need us to move, I have a place in the Hamptons. The fewer people who know about Kate, the better security will be.

“Thank you, Castle, but I couldn't...” Kate interjected.

“You can and you will,” Castle cut in, his eyes alight with concern.

“Consider it done,” Agent Shaw replied, not giving Kate any opportunity to argue. “I'll square things with your captain and get the detail set up. It's a done deal. Time to play dead, Detective. It's been my experience that when a serial killer's pattern gets disrupted it makes them more dangerous, not less. If he thinks he's succeeded he might get careless and make a mistake. When he does I'll come down on him like the wrath of God.”

“What about my dad?” Kate grumbled sullenly, “he's a recovering alcoholic, he took it badly when my mom died, this would kill him.”

“I sent an agent to his residence before making the announcement, Detective.” Agent Shaw replied, “he'll be brought into the loop. Once the crime scene techs are done with your apartment, I'll clear the place and have you and Mr. Castle escorted inside to collect whatever you can salvage of your things.”

“Okay,” Kate replied, her head bowed, clearly unhappy with having the rug yanked out from under her, but her outburst earlier had sapped what little remained of her reserves. Between the blow to her head, minor smoke inhalation, she was feeling too lightheaded to offer any further argument. The FBI medic who'd been watching her like a hawk slipped an oxygen mask over her face, admonishing her to breathe deeply.

“Detective is there someplace your father can stay that's off the grid?” Shaw asked. “Yeah,” Kate replied, “the family cabin in the Adirondacks.”

“Okay,” Agent Shaw stated, “I doubt he's in any danger, but I'll have him sent up there with a small detail to keep an eye out for him. I'll get started on the crime scene and let you know when you can come up. Until then, the ambulance will go to Presbyterian where you will be transferred to a suburban and brought back incommunicado.”

Agent Shaw turned and stepped toward the side door of the ambulance, but turned back suddenly to offer, “I am glad you made it out alive, Beckett and I intend to keep you that way. Don't worry, I'm gonna get this bastard and nail his ass to the wall. Until then, enjoy a nice long vacation courtesy of the FBI”

After Shaw slammed the door closed behind her, Castle sat next to Kate to offer a shoulder for her to lean on while they waited and it was not lost on him when she reached down and placed her hand over his. Without a second thought, he flipped his and laced his fingers with hers as she closed her eyes and breathed out a sigh of resignation. The lower half of her right leg throbbed with a dull pain from her knee down to her ankle, where she was sure she had twisted it jumping into her tub and she was grateful for the solid wall of her partner to hold her bruised and battered body steady.

“Thank you Castle,” Kate whispered through the oxygen mask, “for getting me out of there.”

“Always,” Castle replied. Kate's energy waned after that and she dropped her head onto Castle's shoulder while they waited in companionable silence. Though she never would have admitted it to him last night, or even a few hours ago, but his presence made her feel safe.

* * *

Two hours later, they had been cleared to return to her apartment building after the crowd had been dispersed. Until the last unaccounted for person had been sent packing, they couldn't be sure if the killer was in the crowd. At Castle's whispered suggestion, Shaw's people had photographed the crowd to be sure. But by the time their nondescript black suburban rolled to a stop outside the deserted front door to Kate's apartment building, all was quiet.

Kate stepped out of the SUV wearing an FBI windbreaker and a matching cap, with a pair of sunglasses obscuring her eyes and her hair pushed up underneath looking smaller in the running shoes that Castle had liberated from her cruiser while he'd been waiting outside the ambulance earlier.

She was choked up to see the charred remains of her living room. Almost nothing had been spared from the flames. Kate knelt by her charred desk sifting through the shattered remains of her jewelry box before scooping up the chain with her mother's ring, holding it close to her chest, her eyes scanning the room, but she didn't see the other piece of jewelry that was close to her heart.

“Did anybody find my father's watch?” she called out, her voice choked with emotion at the thought of its loss.

“It's not in the hall.” Castle said, his heart breaking at the desolation on Kate's face, burdened by the half-truth he was telling. His coat pocket felt heavy with the weight of her father's broken watch - which his eyes had fallen upon as soon as he'd entered - its face cracked, hands stopped at the instant of the explosion that had almost taken Kate's life. He was consoled only by the prospect of dropping it off with his jeweler, so he could give it back to her as good as new. In his heart he knew that finding it broken would somehow be worse for her than not finding it at all.

“The damage wasn't as bad in your bedroom,” Shaw told her, “but your clothes that aren't water damaged all smell like smoke and explosive residue.”

Kate locked her tired eyes on Castle, trying to shrug off the feeling of violation clawing in her belly that the killer had been in her home, her sanctum. That she'd nearly died in the very spot where her partner now stood. Goodbye, Nikki.

“Does insurance pays for dry cleaning?” She asked, hoping her tone concealed her feelings of violation, not to mention how vulnerable she felt without her talisman for the life she'd saved. Without her father's watch, her mother's ring felt heavier somehow.

Castle did his best to throw a smirk her way at her attempt at humor, but it did little to lighten the mood for either of them as he left her to dig out a suitcase and throw what was left of her wardrobe and lingerie drawer into it, then another for her shoes. Normally he would have a pithy comment to make about her being bashful about him seeing her choice of underwear, but he had too much on his mind.

The idea of Kate Beckett taking up residence at the loft had been the subject of Castle's dreams and fantasies for the better part of a year, but he found himself unprepared for the reality of her actually moving in, especially not under these circumstances.

Though it ran counter to the side of him Castle knew she was used to, he knew he would have to tread lightly. He kept his face a careful mask of joviality, but inside his guilt and anger warred with each other for dominance, leaving his own emotions almost as much of a churning mess as he was sure Kate's were behind the front he knew she had to be putting up.  He'd seen her in the ambulance after Agent Shaw had lowered the boom on her.

 _That bastard fixated on Kate and tried to kill her...because of me._ He thought to himself, as a wave of protectiveness boiled up from deep in his psyche, one that had heretofore been reserved only for Alexis. He was aware that Kate saw him as a nine year old on a sugar rush, someone who didn't take things seriously. He was certain that was why she kept him at a distance, why she trusted him only so far with her world, despite her reassurances to him after killing Coonan.

 _This guy comes after Kate again,_ he thought darkly, _I guarantee she'll see something new_.

If this guy wanted another shot at Kate, the bastard would have to go through him. Until then, he would do what he could to help Kate pick up what was left of her life and move on.

“Come on Kate, Casa Castle awaits,” He muttered, summoning up his best book signing smile as he took possession of the heaviest of her suitcases, “let's go home.” 

**Author's Note:**

> **Author's Note** I put this prompt up on Tumblr and also personally gave it to a few select people directly. Just because I decided to play with it a bit myself, I certainly hope that does not dissuade anyone from taking a shot at it. I would love to see anyone who likes the idea to take a stab at it. I look forward to seeing other takes on it. I will add to it as circumstances allow 
> 
> The Prompt: AU for Ep 2x18: Boom. Castle saves Beckett from Dunn's bomb, but instead of letting her work the case, Agent Shaw announces Kate's death on the scene and she's not allowed to leave Castle's loft until Dunn is caught.


End file.
